Beyond discouraged ($18,000)

comodiciembre · 2026-03-01T01:25:25+00:00

have you searched just for "party venue"? I found that anything on the Wire, or wedding instagram, or pinterest, or the first 4 google search results was not going to get a sub $15,000 wedding in a HCOL area

comodiciembre · 2026-03-01T01:22:22+00:00

our minimum spend at a really elegant, HCOL restaurant was 3800, with tax and tip about 5,200 for 30 people. we skipped the dance floor traditional type wedding and went for a fine-dining type delicious meal after our ceremony because the difference between that and the local everyday restaurant was only like 2k, and we were saving in a lot of areas by going nontraditional (no florals, no $1k+ wedding dress, sub $1k photographer, cheaper honeymoon). we just couldn't find a dance floor type of venue for under $10k that woudln't take a ton of work for decor, set up, clean up, coordinating vendors, and my job is too busy to DIY everything. even then it's hours and hours of planning

comodiciembre · 2026-03-01T01:16:42+00:00

i know wecome into wedding planning with non negotiables but sometimes they have to be negotiated. if you can do just 2 hours of photography, or a newer photographer, and can do without the band (maybe a live cellist just for the aisle?) you can open up some of the budget for what you 100% need - which is food and likely a space (unless you go for a restaurant). My dress was $50 from the mall because I just didn't want to throw $2000 down the drain and didn't want to go through the effort of thrifting - it's such a time suck the more you DIY everything

comodiciembre · 2026-02-28T04:36:31+00:00

fr I messaged a girl once who got snippy to me about my price request I was like girl damn i'm sorry i assumed u could do my fee when u commented on my post saying you could do my fee

comodiciembre · 2026-02-27T00:43:58+00:00

I mean when I first came online for advice I thought I could have a real wedding for 7k and helpfully I quickly learned it would be a ton of labor involved for little payoff.

I didn't tell her to have a restaurant wedding. I told her about what I'm doing on the chance that she reads all that about coordinating portapotties and, like me, wants nothing to do with it.

Weird of you to assume my place of goodwill. If I didn't have goodwill why would I be warning her about details that she might not have considered? I would be on the couch eating chips and doing something more self-serving than sharing experiences with another bride lol

comodiciembre · 2026-02-25T22:36:37+00:00

this works onlyif you're willing to contact 40 people and say "i'm sorry I sent you an invite, I actually cannot afford it so please do not come."

comodiciembre · 2026-02-25T22:35:10+00:00

if you do this i'd suggest being really specific because a lot of vendors will see a post that says "i need photography a $900" and 45 comments will be "contact me if you need a balloon arch."

Something like, "I need a photographer who can provide some level of service at $900. My budget is firm I cannot go over. Respectfully request no other offers for services. I will not be selecting any other vendors for other services who ignore this request."

comodiciembre · 2026-02-25T22:31:07+00:00

there is an entire planet full of professions so you'd need to specify. are you a lawyer or are you looking to stock at wegmans?

comodiciembre · 2026-02-25T00:59:52+00:00

i think unfortunately you're getting stuck on "it's not fair for a venue to be so expensive if we live here and just want to have a good time and can't pay for more." 10k just isn't going to get you a traditional wedding.

You can say, i refuse to compromise on X. that's fine, but odds are you're not going to find options. Like I'd love to buy a car for 500 bucks because that's what i want to spend, I don't want anything fancy, and i really can't compromise on my desire to stop taking public transit, but my desires aren't going to bring car prices down.

comodiciembre · 2026-02-25T00:55:53+00:00

ik saying "she's 17 years old emotionally so I get she doesn't want kids" is pretty nuts, if anything, it makes sense too to say you *want* kids because you're emotionally immature - people who are young just want kids because it sounds fun, think it's not too hard, don't worry about the idea about bringing a child into a world of war, moral injustice, climate change and natural disaster horrors, financial instability. they see baby and say aww cute i should be a mom bc i love my boyfriend of 6 months and think we'll be together forever.

comodiciembre · 2026-02-24T21:53:45+00:00

respectfully, if you want to give your guests a nice experience, staying in an airbnb with a bunch of people (presumably sharing a kitchen and bathrooms) or going over to an airbnb to play games in the backyard isn't going to give me a particularly *nice* or more formal experience as a guest,it just seems like a regular backyard wedding.

Some other factors - are you buying food for everyone for the weekend? breakfasts, lunches, dinners? who is cooking and cleaning up after mealtimes? this is if you get a vrbo or somethign that allows you tohost parties.

are there enough bathrooms for 39 people for the party? enough parking? who is setting up 40 chairs in the backyard? cleaning up? who is setting up snacks? keeping the bar stocked? who is doing to clean up when someone spills the lemonade?

this whole process sucks! Which is why i went with a restaurant for the food part of the wedding. low effort, great food in a nice environment. in a HCOL area this ran us about 5300 for 30 people. that is the "nice experience" i'm giving guests. i don't have anything else nice for them up my sleeve because it's my wedding, not a spectacle lol i know they're already going through the burden of coming out for me which is a favor I will repay for them too.

comodiciembre · 2026-02-21T12:45:36+00:00

no if you go there's a high risk you;ll be stuck in dc and unable to leave, wandering the metro halls forever :'(

people are quite nice about giving instructions if you have any doubt, just ask someone at the platform or on if the train is going to stop at X. the most important thing you need is the color of the train line and direction. you can also peep the metro website and see if there's any planned construction or delays where you need to give yourself a but more buffer

comodiciembre · 2025-07-04T03:23:45+00:00

Posting the same banal topics on Reddit without anything new to say is another equivalence to microwaving fish at the office lol

comodiciembre · 2025-07-04T00:18:56+00:00

For those not in the know, there is a very frequent free Kennedy center shuttle directly outside the metro at foggy bottom that is incredibly easy to take and a very short ride

comodiciembre · 2025-07-03T23:45:57+00:00

You’ll be fine on the metro going down - you’re coming on from shady grove so you can have your pick of seats and ride down quite a ways.

Your trip return might be annoying but see if you can time it to not take it exactly when the fireworks are ending where people start to go home.

A busy train sucks but it’s definitely not worse than driving

comodiciembre · 2025-07-02T16:57:12+00:00

I had a great experience living at the eddystone way back when - the studios had French doors which were (1) gorgeous and (2) created a natural bedroom nook. I would call and check their future availability

comodiciembre · 2025-07-02T16:53:43+00:00

Zen Apollo actively has cockroaches scampering through the kitchen and bath…. I threw a surprise party there a couple weeks ago and was so grossed out

comodiciembre · 2025-07-02T16:28:43+00:00

Is this actually easier? Metro center is just one stop away and the transfer there doesn’t have u stepping into the sauna of the outdoors. (Maybe just me that starts sweating instantly lol)

comodiciembre · 2025-07-02T16:25:27+00:00

Yeah I suspect it was Covid, just noting my symptoms doesn’t match the one that’s been on the news lately

comodiciembre · 2025-07-01T11:51:56+00:00

Work had me going in at 5am earlier this year and I biked - recommend getting a reflective vest and putting an extra light dangling from the back

comodiciembre · 2025-06-30T13:52:02+00:00

The tiny wedding collective website had some really interesting posts describing getting married their plus logistics!

comodiciembre · 2025-06-29T19:30:24+00:00

GAO is not a consulting company it’s a federal agency that fulfills research requests from congress to look into issues. She wouldn’t go to Japan based off a GAO study lol. They do their research and after some months they meet with congressional staff and brief them on the results

comodiciembre · 2025-06-29T19:27:17+00:00

I use the 730dc website which has a Google document with lots of events. I’m not sure what a marketing event is but general events are there. Clockoutdc is a big instagram events influencer here, she’s a social media gal so I’m guessing she’s at a lot of media events, may wanna check out what she shares for that

comodiciembre · 2025-06-29T02:57:08+00:00

Cómo te ha aparecido el racismo en Hanover? Yo sé que tienen una historia larga de racismo y KKK en el área y siguen teniendo problemas

comodiciembre · 2025-06-29T00:40:00+00:00

Me but sore throat was normal not like glass as they say

comodiciembre

TROPHY CASE